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In honor of our centennial anniversary, we are featuring members of our optometry community — past and present — each day of 2023!

See below for this week’s profiles.

This Week, We Are Celebrating…

October 23rd

Frank Balestrery, OD

Dr. Frank Balestrery chose optometry as a career from his experiences working at the UC Davis Medical Center Eye Clinic, where he found the one optometrist on the staff to be a simply amazing clinician, surrounded by many other excellent practitioners. His background was in physiology, starting as an Animal Science Ag major at UC Davis, and leading to some research in neuroendocrinology and a Master’s Degree. Already married and raising children, he decided to use his background in science and eye clinic experiences to become an optometrist. He applied to the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science and has “never looked back.”

Dr. B’s classmates and instructors honored him with the Golden Retinoscope award, for which he said he will be forever grateful. After obtaining the OD degree, Dr. B started practicing in Tracy with a close classmate and friend of his. He also started teaching at the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science right away. Dr. B said he had some of the most rewarding experiences teaching Third Year students in clinic for close to 35 years. “It was an honor to be able to have a part to play in the process of their professional training,” Dr. B said.

Along the way, he was able to participate in the tremendous growth of the profession, and was involved in many avenues of community service. When he started as an optometry student, treatment of ocular disease was prohibited in California. By the time he retired, Dr. B was treating a plethora of eye conditions and eye diseases, including glaucoma. “It was a fantastic ride!” Dr. B said. “I owe so much to all the instructors and faculty who were my teachers, as well as those whom I learned so much from as we traveled the same path. I deeply miss the professional comradery and splendid patient care environment I was privileged to share. And, I do miss taking care of patients, many of whom I considered friends.”

Dr. B and his wife will stay active in their passion for outdoor challenges, including a self-supported 5-week kayak expedition of Glacier Bay last year (“bears and whales, oh my!”) hiking the John Muir trail, and fly fishing Sierra streams and lakes. He enjoys writing and publishing a monthly investment newsletter for family and friends. Dr. B said he has been blessed with some amazing children and grand-children and will continue to participate in their lives as much as possible.

“To all those currently thinking about becoming an optometrist or are in training now, my best wishes for a fantastic career. Optometry has a distinguished and rewarding future. You will be proud to be part of it! And never stop telling those dearest to you, how much you love them! GO BEARS!” – Dr. Frank Balestrery
October 24th

Chi N. Quang, OD

Dr. Chi N. Quang graduated from the University of California Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Cell Biology (with a Neurobiology emphasis) in 2001, and a Doctor of Optometry degree in 2009. Following graduation, she completed a Primary Care and Low Vision Rehabilitation Residency at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Quang purchased the Castro Valley Optometry Group in 2010. She now solely dedicates her time to practicing at Castro Valley Optometry Group. Dr. Quang speaks Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Spanish. Her interests include sewing, painting, and enjoying the outdoors.

October 25th

Raymond Alan Applegate, OD, PhD, FAAO

Dr. Raymond Alan Applegate is the second of four children born to K. Edwin Applegate and Elizabeth Ann (Dilts) Applegate. He was born in Bloomington, Indiana in 1949 and attended Indiana University from Kindergarten through his Bachelor of Arts (1971), Doctor of Optometry (1975) and his Master of Science in Physiological Optics (1976). He practiced optometry in Galesburg, Illinois before continuing his graduate education in Physiological Optics at the University of California, Berkeley under the mentorship of Tony Adams where he received his PhD (1983).

Ray joined the University of Texas Health Science Center faculty in 1988 from the School of Optometry at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, where he served as an assistant professor of optometry. He rose through the faculty ranks to become a tenured professor of ophthalmology in 1993. In 2002, Ray joined the faculty of the College of Optometry, University of Houston, as the first Borish Chair of Optometry. Ray retired in early 2022 and is currently Professor Emeritus, College of Optometry, University of Houston.

Dr. Applegate is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, Optical Society of America and Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has served as a feature editor of the journal of the Optical Society of America, Applied Optics, and Optometry and Vision Science on several occasions and has served on the editorial board of the journal of Optometry and Visual Science, the Journal of Refractive Surgery, the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Clinical and Experimental Optometry, and the trade journal Review of Refractive Surgery.

Ray has received the American Academy of Optometry, Glen A. Fry Award (2002), Garland W. Clay Award (2008), Charles F. Prentice Award (2019), Carel C. Koch Award (2020), United Kingdom and Ireland Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons Pearce Medal Award for Innovation (2007), and the Wavefront Congress Founders Award for Visionary Leadership (2019).

He was a cofounder of the International Congress on Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-Free Refraction Correction (more commonly known as the Wavefront Congress), and has served the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology as member of Strategic Long Range Planning (2007), member/chair of the Annual Program Committee Vision Science Section (2012-2013), Board of Trustees Vision Science Section (2014-19), chair of ARVO Committee for selecting Editor-in-Chief of IOVS, JOV, TVST (2015-16), Vice President of the Association (2019), Member, Executive Advisory Board for the Center for Adaptive Optics (2005-2010), Council Member, International Society for Contact Lens Research.

Dr. Applegate is co-editor of two editions of Customized Corneal Ablation: The Quest for Super Vision, Slack, Inc., and is widely published in leading journals (over 130). He is a sought after consultant, and international lecturer whose NIH funded research interests’ center on the optics of the eye. Ray’s PhD work was the first to demonstrate active photoreceptor phototropism based on pupil location. His NIH research was instrumental in moving the refractive surgery industry to abandon radial keratectomy and improve photo-ablative refractive surgery, understanding visual image quality (as opposed to retinal image quality) and improving the vision and quality of life of individuals with highly aberrated eyes by developing and bringing to market wavefront guided hard and soft contact lenses.

October 26th

Ian L. Bailey, OD, MS, FBCO, FAAO

Dr. Ian L. Bailey was born in Melbourne Australia on December 22, 1940. He was educated at the Victorian College of Optometry of the University of Melbourne, receiving his Bachelor of Applied Science degree in 1962. There were five optometry graduates that year and two of these, Tony Adams and Don Mitchell, are already in the UC Berkeley School of Optometry Hall of Fame.

After two years in private practice, Ian and his wife Valerie sailed to England to pursue his further education in contact lenses. He became a graduate student instructor at The City University, London, for two years followed by 12 months at Indiana University where he obtained a Master of Science degree. In 1968, he returned to the Department of Optometry of the University of Melbourne as a lecturer and clinic director.

In 1972, Bailey began the Kooyong Low Vision Clinic at the Association for the Blind in Melbourne and his primary clinical interest shifted from contact lenses to low vision. In 1974, he left the Department of Optometry and became a senior research fellow at the Nation Vision Research Institute. In 1976, Professor Bailey joined the faculty at the University of California, School of Optometry.

Professor Bailey’s clinical and research interests have focused on low vision, clinical psychophysics, visual optics and vision ergonomics. He is perhaps best known for developing the Bailey-Lovie visual acuity chart with Jan Lovie-Kitchin. Their logMAR chart design principles standardized the visual task remained constant so that size remained to only significant variable from one level to the next. They also introduced the method scoring visual acuity in terms of logMAR. These chart design principles became the research gold standard for visual acuity testing. Bailey and Lovie applied the same principles to word reading and sentence reading charts. With several colleagues, Bailey also developed the Berkeley Rudimentary Vision test for measuring very poor visual acuity. Currently it is the standard test used for blind sports classifications by the International Paralympics Committee and the International Blind Sports Association.

As multi-center clinical trials were developing in ophthalmic research during the 1980’s, the severity or magnitude of ocular signs were being graded using 4-point integer scales. Bailey and colleagues showed that integer grading scales were inherently insensitive for detecting changes or differences. They advocated decimal interpolation between the integer exemplars, and this has become standard practice in clinical research.

Throughout his career Bailey consistently directed his energies towards improving the scientific and analytical foundations of clinical practice. He introduced many new procedures and clinical methods related to prescribing optical low vision aids. These included new clinically applicable methods for measuring the equivalent power of lens systems, determining the image location and the enlargement ratios of stand magnifiers, and measurement of the magnification of Keplerian and Galilean low vision telescopes. He introduced the Equivalent Viewing Distance approach to quantifying magnification. His research is related to visual functionality in low vision included work on mobility, face recognition, eye movements, reading performance, contrast sensitivity, illumination changes and visual field measurement.

Dr. Bailey has almost 200 publications in the scientific and clinical literature. Professor Bailey has received many awards recognizing his contributions to optometry and vison science. Some of his awards include Charles F Prentice Medal (2000), Glenn A Fry Award (1986), William Feinbloom Award (1994), all from the American Academy of Optometry, and an honorary DSc from the State University of New York (2005), the Pisart Award (2002) from the New York Lighthouse, and the International Society of Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation Award (2022).

October 27th

Vivien Tse, OD, FAAO, FSLS

Dr. Vivien Tse, OD, FAAO, FSLS is a vision science PhD student at the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science. She was born in Hong Kong and raised in Toronto, Canada. Then, she moved to Castro Valley, California when she was 11 years old. Dr. Tse completed her undergraduate degree at UCLA with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, while working at a private practice in West LA as an optometric assistant and started to learn about contact lenses and specialty lenses.

Dr. Tse completed her Doctorate of Optometry degree at New England College of Optometry in Boston and afterwards, completed the Michael G. Harris Cornea and Contact Lens Residency at UC Berkeley. Before entering the Vision Science Program, she completed the clinical research training fellowship and spent 6 years as a research optometrist at the Clinical Research Center, Professor Meng Lin’s lab, focusing on the scleral lenses, contact lenses, and dry eyes.

Dr. Tse would like to develop additional analytical skills and expand her scientific knowledge about ocular health and contact lenses to excel as a clinical scientist. She would like to study and expand her research further on how scleral lenses affect and improve the ocular surface. Her goal is to bridge the gap between clinicians and researchers by assisting other clinicians on new strategies to improve the diagnosis, treatment and management of their patients’ diseases and symptoms using evidence-based scientific information; this can amplify the impact that she hopes to make towards discovering solutions in the field of optometry.

Dr. Tse loves to travel to experience new cultures around the world. She also loves going to live music shows, baking and trying new recipes, working out at home, and being outside hiking, biking, snowboarding, and scuba-diving!

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